Educational method

Abstract

An educational method that integrates technology with the creative process to guide students in creating their own stories and art collected in a thematic anthology, produced as a digital book accessible from a CD-ROM or other memory device. Over a period of several months, the present invention guides participants (students, teachers, etc.) through the creative process, using a selected theme integrated with curriculum, a visiting author, and the creative process including brainstorming, research, drafts and revision, to develop a literary work accompanied by the artwork of those students contributing to the literary work. The compilations are organized into a digital book anthology, and may be saved on a memory device such as a magnetic disk or CD. The invention fits the needs of productive educational environments by creating outcome-based lessons that help students develop skills in critical thinking, writing, visual expression, communication and potentially other subjects such as science and geography.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . An educational method comprising the steps of: 
 presenting a professional guest to a group of students;    conducting at least one workshop with the group of students by the professional guest, the subject of the workshop being directly related to at least one of the professional guest's area of profession and the professional guest's area of expertise;    generating a lesson-plan associated with the workshop for the group of students, the lesson-plan encouraging the students to create a work in a tangible medium;    collecting works from the students;    converting the collected works into a digital format; and    storing the collected and digital works into a digital compilation.    
     
     
         2 . The educational method of  claim 1  wherein the professional guest is a published author and the workshop is related to writing skills.  
     
     
         3 . The educational method of  claim 2 , wherein the works include visual and written elements.  
     
     
         4 . The educational method of  claim 3 , wherein the method is conducted with multiple groups of students, such as different grade levels in a school.  
     
     
         5 . The educational method of  claim 4 , wherein each group is given a respective lesson-plan and wherein all the lesson-plans are centered about a common theme.  
     
     
         6 . The educational method of  claim 1 , wherein the digital compilation resides in a CD, on a Web-Page, or some other electronic memory device.  
     
     
         7 . The educational method of  claim 1 , wherein the digital compilation includes an advertisement and the method includes the step of obtaining at least partial sponsorship for the digital compilation in exchange for advertising space on the digital compilation.  
     
     
         8 . The educational method of  claim 1 , wherein the digital compilation includes biographical information on the guest.  
     
     
         9 . The educational method of  claim 8 , wherein the digital compilation includes a work provided by the guest.  
     
     
         10 . The educational method of  claim 1 , wherein the group of students are at least one of a grade school student group, a high school student group or a college student group, a community group, a church group and a professional group.  
     
     
         11 . An educational method comprising the steps of: 
 lecturing the students by an artist;    selecting a topic related to the artist's work;    producing works pertaining to the topic;    compiling the works produced by the students; and    storing digital forms of the works onto a storage medium.    
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the artist is an author.  
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 12 , wherein the author is an author of childrens literature.  
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising the step of: 
 converting the works into digital form.    
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the storage medium of the accessing step is one of a CD-ROM, a computer memory and an Internet server memory.  
     
     
         16 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the selecting step includes the steps of: 
 exchanging ideas between at least the artist and at least one faculty member;    choosing a topic from the ideas exchanged between the artist and the at least one faculty member; and    planning lessons by the at least one faculty member to correspond to the topic chosen.    
     
     
         17 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein: 
 the selecting step includes the step of selecting a topic suggested by the artist;    the lecturing step includes the step of interaction between the artist and the students pertaining to the topic;    the producing step includes the step of allowing the students time to refine the works with the help of the artist;    the compiling step includes the step of organizing the works with the aid of software;    the storing step includes the step of saving the organized digital form of the works onto a local storage medium; and    the storing step includes the step of transmitting the digital form of the works over a network and storing the digital form onto a remote storage medium.    
     
     
         18 . The method of  claim 17 , wherein the accessing step includes at least one of the following steps: 
 accessing the digital form of the works from the remote storage medium by an authorized party, such that the authorized party copies the digital form of the works onto a portable storage medium;    accessing the digital form of the works from the remote storage medium by an authorized party, such that the authorized party may view the digital works; and    accessing the digital form of the works from the remote storage medium by an authorized party, such that the authorized party accesses the digital form through the Internet.    
     
     
         19 . The method of  claim 11 , further comprising the step of: 
 viewing the works after the storing step in a format discernable by a human being.